Food for Thought

Perhaps she will come back for me. Maybe it will only be a second. A minute. Or a little bit longer moment in time… but it cannot be much more than that. She will realize the mistake and return, a harried look on her young face for having made such an error. Would a person abandon someone created just for them? Would a girl let go her desire for a custom companion to nurture her?

Unlikely, and I know it. My patience will be rewarded to escape this box imprisoning me and return to her.

A seagull calls nearby, and I want to cry back: “Go away!” There is danger inherent in every moment of time passing. I dread not hearing the quiet footsteps that brought me here, the absence of sound that could mean I will be forgotten forever. Until I sink into the sand, a crumbled relic of a bygone purpose.

Movement! The world shifts, and I tumble end over end, not sure which way is up or down. When the movement stops, I’m blinded by light—the sun. The sides of my box fall away and I taste the liquid, golden air of freedom.

But when I look at the face waiting for me, a sharp betrayal stabs through me.

Not her. It is not her at all.

He touches my sides, bottom, back with wonder. His face is grizzled and worn, clothes tattered. If there was ever a softness to his life, an ease of living, it is now gone. A shopping cart full of odds and ends is pulled up next to the slide where she had played, climbing up and diving down, the sweet sound of her laughter like a balm to me for what was to come. I knew I would spend a lifetime with the child, for she was young and full of vigor. On the cusp of so many great things.

Not so this stranger. He has given up on it all. I can tell by the sad tilt of his face and mournful eyes. Hope died long ago in his heart, and I know without much guessing that his years are numbered and short. I cannot nurture a body already leaning toward death and decay.

But then… but then.

His eyes fix upon me, and they fill with… gratitude. Love. Hope. Joy.

More than I ever saw with her. She abandoned me at this playground and ran back home with no thought to waiting. She did not miss me, will not know any agony other than a mother’s scolding for my loss.

But this man without a home, hugged only by old coats and the tarnished memories that do not keep him warm—he knows my value. He sees me, and there is such an emotion there that I am also overwhelmed.

We are meant to be together, I realize. This is why I was created and put on this Earth. For him.

As he opens his mouth and sinks his yellowed teeth through the layers of my bread and jam and peanut butter, I am more than content with my fate.